Popular Places in Malta

Places in Malta

Today we start out bright and early. We head for the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Archaeological Park.
On the way we stop and take pictures of the Blue Groto. Wait till you see the beautiful pictures.
The Archaeological Park was amazing and so interesting. The ruins date to way way before Christ was born; about 3600 BC! It must have been the first human beings. How did they build such structures? That's where the archaeologists come in and figure these things out.
Hagar Qim is thought to be one of the most ancient religious sites on Earth. The...

Mdina (we spell it Medina) is a fortified city in the Northern Region of Malta. It served as the island's capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city is still confined within its walls and has a population of just under 300.
I must tell you a story of Malta that I didn't yesterday. There was an Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. They arose around 1023 to provide care for sick, poor or injured pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the...

Malta is an archipelago in the central Mediterranean between Sicily and the North African coast. An archipelago is a stretch of water having many islands. In the Republic of Malta, only the three largest islands are inhabited.
It has been inhabited since approximately 5900 BC. Its location in the center of the Mediterranean has historically given it great strategic importance as a naval base. A succession of powers having contested and ruled the islands, including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans,...

Our last port of call was Malta, an island located between Sicily and the North African coast. As we had come to expect, we awoke to rain and thunder but shortly after we got off the ship the rain stopped and the weather improved as the day went on.
Malta has a history that dates back beyond 5,000 BC and has been ruled by the Romans, Moors, French and British amongst others. I didn’t think it was the most picturesque island – it’s a dry, desert-looking place – but there were parts of it that weren’t bad. What I found most interesting was...

Tuesday was another sea day and while the weather wasn’t great it was nice to take a break from the last 4 days and the back-to-back-to-back-to-back ports. Kathy finally got to do her glass blowing class and she split with the other girls and their Christmas ornaments and opted to do a flower. Apparently, you can now refer to Ken, Michele, Lisa and Kathy as accomplished artists. Dave and I? Not so much.
Our dinner for Tuesday was the most unusual, and surprisingly interesting, meal of the trip and the food was some of the best we had the...

Today we headed into central Malta stoping first at Mosta to view its church with an amazing dome. The whole church was completed, much of the labour voluntary, in just twenty seven years.
The church has a high dome, many internal walls of blue and just some gilding, but we were told the story of a bomb in WWII.
Three hundred people,were in the church when a bomb hit the dome, piercing it, bouncing off a wall and ending on the floor unexploded. The first thought was that it must have been an Italian bomb or else one that the Jewish people,...

Our day started with an audiovisual - The Malta Experience - in a theatre situated in the St Elmo Fort. Valletta is sited on a peninsula under a kilometre in length and arranged in a grid pattern with narrow streets to keep the buildings shaded but always accessible for the cooler breeze off the sea.
The A-V gave an excellent overview of the history bringing together our experiences yesterday, today when we concentrate on the Knights of St John and tomorrow when we visit Mdina in the centre of the island.
Valletta is preparing for a festa...

There are two Maltas for tourists. Where we are staying you would assume it is about sun, drinking, clubbing especially for the young. The other Malta is the story of an ancient history and today we started to explore that.
Starting at the Hypogeum, Greek for underground, we saw an audiovisual display relating to the excavation of an area of buildings from earlier than 5000 BC. Included was a look through glass at a small excavated area but only very limited numbers can visit the whole site as it was realised that damage was occurring. For...

Has been a rather lazy day before the full schedule ahead in the next few days.
I'd not closed the curtains so woke to a red sunrise over the harbour and after a god breakfast walked to the far end of the Sliema side and back exploring a little of the side streets and cross alleys. Very warm so a sit in a little shaded square with a bottle of water and a gelati for a spot of people watching was in order.
The path alongside the sea was fringed by tour boats and young people encouraging boat tours while the other side of the road is lined...

Timed out before I had the chance to save so will redo tomorrow. Off to bed now..
Morning now.
Had a good sleep so can now make the entry for yesterday.
Rather than staying at the airport Lars had arranged for Klara to drive me to the airport as she had Laila and Per's car so she saw early morning at the beginning of her day as a change!
No problem with my flights except for a gate change in Frankfurt which had me moving swiftly from Gate 1 to Gate 22..
Arrived in Malta to slightly overcast but warm and humid weather. Taxi at the airport...

After seeing the brilliant turquoise waters of the Blue Lagoon from the air, I knew I had to snorkel those seas for myself. Unfortunately, windy weather and the resulting anticipated crowds on the boats initially botched our plans. We instead got up early to catch a bus to the ferry over to Gozo, and then somehow hoped to sort out a boat to the Blue Lagoon from there. The morning was beautifully clear, the waters calm, and we decided to try our luck at getting on one of those boats from the Sliema harbor. Score! There was room for us and we...

Malta! What a beautiful and interesting place. It's popped up on my screen-saver and I've liked it! Malta s a little-known European island, a country all it's own, but gaining popularity amongst the young crowd. With English as one of its two official languages (Maltese being the other, with some similarity to Italian), it has become trendy for students to come practice their English for a few months, away from the disapproving eyes of their parents. Remember what that was like? Sadly, we were quickly reminded as we got off the plane, kids...